You think they're snake oil??? Or you've used them more than once and didn't like them??
If it's the former not the latter then keep your untested opinions to yourself and let others make their own mind up. If it is the latter, state that you don't like them personally and your reasons why and let others make their own mind up. Don't just bag a product like that.
As i said before, i've never used them on electric bass but on acoustic bass, electric guitar and acoustic guitars they are the best strings i have used in 30+ years of playing. I only change strings when there starts to be lumps in the string over the frets. Occasionally, but very rarely, the coating is completely destroyed by the pick or fretting hand. On the most used guitars i'll still get more than 6 months use out of a set. Uncoated strings i'd be lucky to get more than one month before they are dead.
Elixirs are especially good on instruments that you don't play often. I have a set on my 12 string that are over 3 years old and they sound as good as the day they were put on. Had they been uncoated they would be useless pieces of rust, particularly the plains.
No, from years of experience owning and running a music shop. Selling basses, guitars, repairing them, customers turning them in for changing strings. All new guitars and basses came with them, and was up for testing, when they were hanging around. However, people who tried them didn't know this. Whenever bought, they wanted NEW strings on them. Whenever any instrument came in for repair or adjustment or intonation, all we got in, were the flaked ones. All customers wanted "ordinary" strings, since they thought Elixirs wasn't WORTH the price increase at all. Elixir just changed in 2013 their recipe for them not to flake up, and by that time, me and everybodye else had moved on. I do think that Cleartone and Martin LifeSpan may be the only ones that can hold a candle. There have been numerous people throughout the years, with hand sweat who jumped on the coated bandwagon, thinking it would solve their problem. "Rusted" within 2-3 weeks anyway....
What electric guitar strings are the most rust-resistant? - Music: Practice & Theory Stack Exchange
Oh BTW, Flatwounds last longer. Way longer. The sound is about the same as muffled Elixirs.
Find it peculiar that your plain strings on your 12 strings had rust when using regulars. Elixir doesn't coat the plain strings! As far as I know, all plain strings on all electric guitars and acoustics as well, are made of stainless steel. It's the wound ones they change the recipe on, with pure nickel wound, nickel plating, phospor bronze or whatever. As it is on bass, all are wound. Never ever seen rust on plain stainless steel strings. I do have seen them gunk up, but it is easily wiped and cleaned out. It's only when the plain strings has some kind of a) coating b) plating that they get tarnished or rust. However, the wound strings can rust as well as crust and tarnish. By a great deal. Otherwise Elixir wouldn't coat just the three bottom wound strings, would they?
Which is one of the silliest business decisions ever made. They made a decision that the plain strings didn't need coating at all. They have regular plating on them just as any other company though. I've always wanted the market to sell guitar sets splits in 3. That you can buy them in sets of 3. Either the wound set, or the plain set. But this with the plain strings not being coated...
Maybe something you've missed?
Maybe you've missed the endowment effect?
Endowment effect - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The main reason I think they're snake oil, is just that. That they still coat the wound strings only on their guitar sets. Coats just 3 of them, but sells them in 6 packs with three plain strings from their other regular strings, and still charges premium. And when I told this to customers they went "huh? what? had no idea just the wounds were coated". No one I've met knew of this.
Now back to bass, where all strings are wound.
